I am a mom to many, wife to dear husband, homeschooling, homesteading mom living in rural WI. God has so blessed us, and this blog may be my ramble on life here, our craziness, and living with ten kids 2 to 18! I am so grateful for all that we have been blessed with although it is not without its challenges! LOL!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Hi all,I know that I promised a fun makeover post, and I nearly got it ready to go, and then well, life happened! It appears that over the last three weeks or less, we had a minor case of H1N1 go through the house. At first it was no big deal, two days of fevers, two or so of us at a time, then a productive cough. No big deal, it swept through the house and we all managed.

And then a week ago Kiley suddenly spiked a high temperature after having been fever free for five days.

Of course, along with that (for a child with diabetes) there are crazy blood sugars and the medical concerns that brings. We worked hard to manage it, but fevers got as high as 104, then came vomiting, huge lethargy, and horrible color. By Tuesday morning her fluid intake was dangerously low and she was throwing some ketones. I knew that I was now scared. I had to take her in, I was exhausted and done. I knew Steve wasn't quite there but all that kept running through my head was that the folks who are dying from this are those with "underlying medical conditions" which of course is Kiley.

I had her take a shower, knowing that she would feel a little better, plus it would give me time to assemble some things without her knowing that we were leaving. Sigh. Well, when I poked my head in to see how she was doing in the shower, she told me that she was noticing that she was having trouble breathing.

New development. Not a good one.

Add that to the fact that she had slept for the majority of the day, on the couch with life going on around her.

We left for the hospital Tuesday afternoon. Spent quite a few hours in the ER. They did blood work, chest xray, and began to figure out what was going on. Surprisingly, it wasn't a diabetes issue as we were all sure that she was in DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis - a very bad thing). Not at all, which means that we had done fairly well in a tough situation managing her diabetes. However....

She had significant pneumonia in both lungs and was dehydrated.

At first it looked like they would hydrate her, get antibiotics started via IV and then send us home. Her temperature wasn't bad, she had had tylenol and ibuprophen two hours before we left for the hospital.

And then it wore off.

Her temperature spiked and the child who had actually perked up, went back to looking deathly ill, color like concrete, very obviously very ill.

Within a very short time she was admitted to the hospital.

And we are still here on Sunday.

At first it looked like it would just be overnight. Then another 24 hours, and then another, and then, when we were hoping that we would be home for the weekend, though confined to the house - we were told it would be until at least Sunday morning.

Needless to say, given all that, it was a good indication of how sick Kiley was.

For literally many days she took next to nothing by mouth - literally nothing. Thank God for IV fluids.

Thursday she started to take some fluids consistently - only fluids, but fluids. Starbucks smoothies started it all. That company will forever have a place in my heart!!!!

Friday we got two bites of food late in the day, but only two bites. And we have literally tried everything - nurses jumping for anything they could think of, as well as mom and dad and all our friends - more emails, calls and texts wondering what she might like. No real avail.

Then yesterday morning she had a small muffin. I thought I would dance around the room!!!

But she filled up so fast. Nothing more went in, until the ibuprophen she got for her fever (it spiked again last night at five - it had been spiking every eight hours) kicked in and gave her quite the stomachache. She then tearfully took some saltines as the nurse and I hovered. But it helped.

About an hour later, she told me she was hungry (of course the dinner tray came, was refused by her and was gone). Her idea was a bagel - nurses were on the phone to the kitchen and one came up fast! I could not believe how quickly she ate it! Within a half hour the huge bagel was gone!!!! Then she asked for a Snapple - I ran down and got her two! And she drank one right away.

This morning she had bites of everything on her tray. Not much, but something. Then a cookie and some ice cream!

The labs done this morning show that things are improving, though more slowly than the doctor would like. There is also some pleural effusion - fluid outside of her lung - but it isn't changed. Her fever that spiked last night at 5 has not returned, at least not more than 99 degrees. Last night it got to 102. We were really hoping that she would be released after labs this morning, but the doctor wants to see her without fever until 6PM. They are concerned that something else, another infection, could be going on. So, we are still here. Kiley is disappointed and bored and worried.

As you can imagine, with eight kids in the family, now one kid and one parent at the hospital, it has been a difficult situation. Steve has been able to take sick time, so was home all week. My parents took the seven kids several times so Steve could be here with us for a while (thanks Mom and John - nothing like having seven kids at your house!!!!!). A family near us has taken the boys one night so Steve could take the little girls to the Father/Daughter Ball at church - and friends helped us outfit the girls in party dresses and tights and shoes!!! And the same family took the seven this morning as we had a big event at church that Steve had to be there for, and without a parent there, we just didn't want to send the kids with him (the event was at the KI Center and there were thousands of people there from our campus and the other two campuses). So, thank you so much Bretton family!!!! You have been so gracious and the kids have had an absolute ball!!! What a relief for these stressed parents!

I don't know how this will turn out today. I so want to be home. I so want my daughter to be well. I am still worried about her health, but she is light years better than she was just days ago. Now that things are improving, it is easier to see how bad things were. I am so grateful to God that we are not any worse off than we are. I do so wish we were home. But, she is in good hands here.

I greatly look forward to completing my project at home to being home>